1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a removable grass catcher for a rotary lawn mower or the like, and more particularly to such a catcher that has upper side air vents formed to direct exhausted air in a downwardly direction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Grass collection containers for rotary lawn mower controlled by an operator walking behind the mower are generally of a flexible cloth bag or a rigid housing formed from molded plastic or the like. The rigid molded catcher suffers primarily from the disadvantage that vent holes must be formed in the catcher to serve as exhaust ports for air that is forced into the catcher along with grass clippings.
The problem with venting in rigid catchers is that the vents must be formed in such fashion so as to permit efficient venting of the air from the catcher and yet, at the same time, substantially minimize the escape of any grass clippings therefrom. A number of rigid catchers have been devised to overcome this disadvantage through a unique positioning of air vents and the use of baffles to block the passage of grass clippings through the vents. For example, such a catcher is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,698 which issued Feb. 17, 1981. Although the invention described in the "698" patent appears to provide an efficient and effective venting system, it is believed that the structure of such device is needlessly complicated and would be unreasonably expensive to manufacture.
The present invention provides a substantially rigid, molded grass catcher of a simplistic and yet efficient and effective design for providing venting of the catcher with minimal loss of grass clippings from the catcher.